Abstract:
Irrigation could serve as practical solutions to address the difficult of food insecurity by
increasing farmed production. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of Ella
small-scale irrigation scheme using some selected performance indicators: Conveyance
efficiency, water delivery and physical performance indicators with in the period of October
to
December, 2022. to achieve this; the primary data collected were discharge
measurements, soil samples, infiltration test, group discussions, and semi structured
questioner filled. Besides, secondary data were climatic, designed and current irrigated area
per one irrigation season. Materials used for data collection were Current meter, Parshall
flume; double ring infiltrometer and so on. The soft wares used were GIS 10.7, Excel and
CROPWAT 8.0 to analyze the data that had been collected. Based on analyses, Lined &
Earthen Main and Earthen secondary canals had averaged conveyance efficiency and losses
with values of 83.1%, 76%, 69.58%, and 16.9%, 24%, and 30.42%, respectively. As a result,
the scheme was functioning in a "fair" state for delivery efficiency and "poor" state for
average values for indicators were found to be delivery efficiency (0.78), adequacy (0.79),
equity (0.28), dependability (0.29), deficiency (0.9), and overall performance indicator
(0.40), respectively. The average monitoring period results found that Water Surface
Elevation Ratio (66%), Sustainability of irrigated area (84%), Irrigation Ratio (70%),
Effectiveness of Irrigation infrastructures (66.4%) and Equity ratio for head to tail (1.49) of
the canals during the monitoring period were less than standard value. There was an unfair
distribution of water due to water scarcity and illegal water users as the beneficiaries
responded. Generally, the overall performance of the scheme is poor. Therefore, a gated
division system, regular canal clearance, maintenance of broken irrigation infrastructures,
proper management approaches, extension and training are needed to ensure long-term
sustainability of the scheme. So, all irrigation and drainage domains must work together in
order to mitigate the water scarcity of the irrigation system.
